Do Not Forsake Me(137)

A furious Brian started to charge down the hill, but Lloyd leaped up and managed to tackle him to the ground as bullets flew their way.

“Damn it, Brian, we’ll get her away from there! You have to stay calm!”

Brian fought him, and Lloyd ordered Harry Wilkes and Ruben Tate to come and hold him down.

“Brian, we can’t do our job if you don’t stay put!” Jake told him.

Brian turned away, staying on his knees. The other two men let go of him.

“Brian, we need to be able to use our guns to help Jake. We can’t be spendin’ time holdin’ you down,” Harry told him.

Brian nodded, grasping his middle and bending over.

Jake watched as a second man came out of the cabin holding a wiggling Little Jake in front of him.

Marty started dragging Evie toward the barn. “Cover me, boys!”

“I have to go down there. It’s the only thing that will distract him,” Jake told Lloyd.

“No! Pa, look at Evie! She keeps moving her head to the side. She thinks you can take him, Pa. She’s trying to keep her head out of the way!”

Jake followed Marty with his rifle.

“See? She’s not fighting him.”

“But she’s tall and Marty is short, so their heads are even. One jerk the wrong way and I’ve killed my own daughter!” Jake lamented.

“Bullshit! You can do it, Pa! And I can take the other one. Little Jake is too small to give the man decent cover.”

“Look how he’s wiggling,” Jake answered. “Jesus, Lloyd, you could kill Little Jake.”

“I won’t! I can take that man, Pa, and you damn well can take Marty.”

Jake blinked back tears. “Jesus God, if it was anybody else but Evie…”

“Do it, Pa! She’s counting on it! She’s a Harkner. She’s giving you a target!”

“It could be like with Santana all over again. I can’t do it, Lloyd.”

“Yes, you can, goddamn it! Shoot him!”

Jake struggled against tears. “God help me,” he whispered, raising his carbine and taking aim.





Thirty-five


“I’m takin’ her, Jake!” Marty screamed, his voice ringing in Evie’s ears. “If you want her back, you’ll have to come and get her, and there’s eleven other men down here with me who will blow you to pieces!”

Don’t do it, Daddy! Don’t come down here! At first Evie tried to strain against Marty’s tight grip around her chest and arms, then realized that fighting him meant making it harder for Jake to shoot him. She felt ill at the smell of Marty’s foul breath, refused to look at his ugly eye. She kept her head turned away as far as possible.

“Hold your fire, Jake, else you’ll kill your own daughter!” Marty continued screaming. “You’ll never—”

Evie felt it then, an odd buzzing sound so close to her ear that it hurt. Instantly Marty’s hold on her loosened. He fell, taking her down with him. At almost the same time, the man holding Little Jake slumped to the ground. Evie couldn’t even remember hearing gunshots. She grabbed Little Jake then as the air exploded with gunfire, so much of it that it was painful to her ears. The shots became muffled then, her ears shutting down on her.

After that, everything seemed to happen like a strange dream. She saw men pour out of the cabin, the wagon, the barn…running past her…shooting…shooting…shooting! She stayed on the ground, keeping a tight hold on Little Jake, who struggled to get away and run to his grandfather. The boy covered his ears.

Then she saw them. She recognized their size, and Lloyd had lost his hat. His long hair was flying behind him like an Indian’s as he charged down the hill as if he was some kind of warrior, making quick stops to shoot his rifle. The tall man beside him in a black shirt and hat was unmistakably her father. They deliberately made difficult targets as they ducked and wove behind and around shrubs and small trees. Evie felt the terror of possibly seeing her father and brother both shot down before her eyes. She managed to crawl behind a barrel, looking around the side of it to see fire spitting from the ends of her brother’s and her father’s six-guns, which they now used instead of rifles. She noticed more puffs of blue smoke coming from up on the ridge…more men who must have come to help Jake.

They had all seen her mostly naked. She leaned over Little Jake, sick with humiliation, devastated that her own brother and father had seen her this way. She opened her eyes then to see Lloyd go down.

“No! No!” She thought she was screaming the words, but couldn’t hear herself. “Lloyd!” Then Jake went down. “Oh, God, Daddy!”